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Crisis is a strong word, of course, but even old sour chops Alex Ferguson is beginning to worry about the kind of team he can field for Man Utd’s season opener against Newcastle United. Injuries and other problems are mounting. Cristiano Ronaldo we know all about of course – if you’ve been living on the Moon all summer, he may or may not be signing for Real Madrid, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s out until October with an ankle injury anyway.

Then there’s somersaulting winger Nani, suspended, and Olympics-bound Anderson, who are both out. And Wayne Rooney. After a summer of getting married and smoking fags on his honeymoon, Rooney has succumbed to a virus while on a …

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It’s football versus the Olympics - and football wins! Yes, despite a tagline of the ‘greatest show on earth’, the Olympics has proven to be no match at all for the powers-that-be in world football. Three top European clubs have won their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which means their players won’t play in the Olympic football tournament. FIFA, football’s governing body, had ordered that all players under the age of 23 should be released by their clubs, but the clubs thought otherwise and rebelled.

Barcelona, Werder Bremen and Schalke all flexed their muscle to prevent Lionel Messi, Diego and Rafinha from playing in Beijing. All three are major players for their clubs, but even so, it seems …

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England have named their team for Kevin Pietersen’s first match as captain – and there’s a shock in the line-up. Want to guess? Think bowling. Who’s the last bowler you’d expect to see dropped from the side? The most consistent, most impressive England bowler of the last year? Yep, that’s right - Pietersen’s only gone and left Ryan Sidebottom out of the team! No-one expected the shaggy-haired seamer to be the first victim of the new era, but there you go; Sidebottom is out, Steve Harmison and Stuart Broad are back in. It seems as if pace will be the order of the day when the Test gets under way at Surrey’s Oval on Thursday.

The Michael Vaughan-shaped hole at No.3 …

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There are plenty of signs that poker continues to broaden its appeal and bring new players to the table.

Take the climax of the National Deaf Poker Tour (NDPT) on Friday.

Its 2007-2008 season featured four events, that last of which took place in the Venetian Casino, Las Vegas.

The NDPT was created by six hearing impaired players. One of those founders, James Rydstrom, said

‘We wanted to be able to have a deaf-only tournament to provide us the privilege of playing in a tourney where we can talk to anyone around us. If was playing in a world Series of Poker event among non-deaf players, I would not be able to pick up on what’s being said around the table. This …

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I´ve just unearthed the bet of the year at this week´s PGA Championship (it´s my 1,523rd bet of the year). Bodog have listed our mate Hunter “Hurricane” Mahan in a 72 hole match bet with former Aussie outback farmer Stuart Appleby.

Hunter did us a nice favour at last month´s Open Championship when he slayed Argentinian beast Angel Cabrera to bring home the booty and we urge you to follow the American again.

Not a lot of people know that Mahan finished runner up at Oakland Hills (this week´s venue) in the 2002 US Amateur Championship. With course knowledge like that it makes his odds of 20/23 look very tidy indeed. Appleby is a top player and is in decent form having made …

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